Wudang Mountain The Shrine of Taoism

2014-10-11
sonrisabai
Activities
Shiyan
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Wudang Mountain is located in the northwest of the Shiyan city, Hubei province. The highest peak is 1,612 meters above the sea level and it covers an area of 312 square kilometers. As one of the most famous shrines of the Taoism, hundreds of thousands tourists and pilgrims come here every year. It is among the world cultural heirtage lists, also where the famous Wudang boxing was first originated. People honor it as the “First Holy Mountain.”

Taoism is the only indigenous religion of China, which was firstly started in the late period of Han Dynasty(202 B.C-220 B.C). Taoism believes everything in this world has “Dao”, with it, one thing leads to another. Human beings should live by it. Specificaly, there are four “Daos”, which are Heaven, Earth, Human, Ghosts. Each one has its own space.

Unlike other traditional oriental regions, Taoism shows great respect for woman. It is a perfect combination of all the brilliant ancient Chinese thoughts, in the mean time, mixing with medical science, witchcraft, mathematics, literature, astronomy, geography, and Yin and Yan. The core of Taoism is to believe in the immortals, plus some essence of ancient philosophy, prehistoric religion and some tips of how ancient people keep healthy and live a long lifespan.

According to the Taoists, the God of the Taoism-Zhenwu Dadi was born in here. Thus The Taoism in Wudang mountain were respected and promoted by many ancient Chinese emperor and it hit the climax in Ming dynasty. An emperor even took control of the Taoism rites spot and named at the Royal Temple. In Tang dynasty, there was a really bad drought, without enought food, a lot people died from the feminie. Emperor Li shimin came to Wudang mountain and prayed for rain and it worked. Now tourists can still see a lot temples built by ancient emperors, behind every temple, there was an moving story.

When stepping into the mountain, everything feels so old and religious. So many temples! Many tourists only came here to take a look at those buildings of Taoism, so big and majestic. There is one called Zixiao palace, built based on the typical traditional Chinesese Fengshui theory, it’s back on water and face to the east. Standing inside the palace and looking down, everything seems so small. Because it’s so big, it’s hard to put in in a picture. All you can do is focus and try your best to carve that amazing view in your head.

Wudang mountain is also a natural herbs medidine warehouse. Among the 1800 kinds herbs recorded in Compendium of Materia Medica, 400 kinds can be found in here. The trip to the top might be a little tiresome but it is definitely worth it. When standing on the Golden peak, you would find it’s all wrapped around by clouds, it’s like clouds waves in the sky. I wonder how many immortals of Taoism live in those clouds.